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Saudi arrests wanted militant in major oil centre

Ahmad Al Hadhli was arrested on Friday in the southern Saudi town of Yanbu, said Mansour Al Turki, the Interior Ministry spokesman for security affairs.

Hadhli, 36, had been on a wanted list of 85 people issued by the Saudi authorities last year. Seventy-four are still on the run and most are believed to be outside the kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter.

A security source said Hadhli had been monitoring oil and industrial facilities at Yanbu, site of a large oil refinery, an oil terminal and petrochemical plants.

Turki declined to comment, saying Hadhli was still being questioned.

Two men on the wanted list were killed in clashes with security forces in Saudi Arabia and another died in a failed suicide attack that targeted the kingdom’s top anti-terrorism official, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.

Militants launched in 2003 a violent campaign to topple the U.S.-allied monarchy killing nearly 200 people, including foreign residents.

But a Saudi security crackdown coupled with tighter controls on financing and the spread of militant ideas helped curb violence inside the kingdom after 2006.

Turki declined to comment on reports that Saudi Arabia was holding Abdullah Saleh Al Eidan, an Al Qaeda field commander allegedly caught in January with documents and the contact details of some 300 people in Oman.